TE KUITI REQUEST

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4955, 13 February 1937, Page 5

TE KUITI REQUEST

HOSPITAL REPRESENTATION. ANOTHER MEMBER WANTED. At the monthly meeting of the Waikato Hospital Board on Thursday, a deputation from Te Kuiti urged the restoration of repesentation on the Board for the Te Kuiti Borough. The chairman, Mr. J. J. Ryburn, presided and the deputation comprised Messrs. T. Carroll (Mayor of Te Kuiti) and S. Craig (chairman of the relief committee). Mr. Carroll detailed the history leading up to the re-arrangement of membership on the Board by which the representation in the Waitomo and Te Kuiti districts was reduced to one and stated that with the present representative living about 20 miles from the town, Te Kuiti was not getting the representation to which it was entitled. A large sum came from Te Kuiti for the maintenance of the institution and he could not see why the representation should have been reduced.

Supporting the previous speaker, Mr. Craig said often the activities of the relief committee and the Hospital Board had clashed, and he thought a restoration of a representative in the Borough would be beneficial to the Board and to the committee. A representative in the town would help the Board’s finances as he would be able to advise which people were in a position to pay for treatment and so facilitate collection. Mrs. H. M. Wilson, the present representative of the district, had done good work but it was impossible for her to keep in close touch with the town. Adverse Figures. Mr. Ryburn explained that the rearrangement of membership on the Board had depended on population and capital value, and on this basis the figures had been against Te Kuiti and the Borough had lost its representation. It would be better if the matter were left until prior to the next election of members. Then any increase in population could be taken into account. There should not be any difficulty as far as the administration of relief was concerned in Te Kuiti. It was an easy matter to obtain direct communication with the secretary or anyone else who knew the case under consideration.

Replying to the deputation, Mrs. Wilson thought that the request was a reasonable one as long as it did not cost the Board anything. It was certainly an awkward position for a representative in the country to keep in close touch with the town. However, the scales were heavily weighted against the town districts. Most of the people who rang her were out of the town. It would be an ideal position to have one representative in the town and another in the country, but in view of the fact that the country districts were handicapped in many ways she thought that they needed the representation. Mr. Craig said there was no desire to do away with the country representative on the Board, but in view of the fact that the Waitomo district was one of the largest under the jurisdiction of the Board it seemed only reasonable that there should be two representatives. It was pointed out that the Board had no authority to appoint a representative in the town, and Mr. Craig suggested that the Board make a recommendation to the Minister of Health that he might give authority for the appointment. It was decided to advise the Minister of Health and the Director-Gen-eral of Health that the Board had received the deputation.